Accounting and Finance Software: Adaptive Insights

Founded in 2003, Adaptive Insights is an accounting and finance software solution providing budgeting, forecasting and reporting capabilities for companies of nearly any size. This is a cloud-based SaaS delivered over the Web that doesn’t require the purchase of any new software or hardware. It was designed to feel very similar to using Excel, which means many users will feel comfortable in the environment from the start, lessening the learning curve significantly.

Many companies who have switched to Adaptive Insights note that they were up and running smoothly in just three weeks of time. As with other SaaS solutions, upgrades occur automatically on the back-end without slowing users down much at all. Although Adaptive Insights is used by all kinds of businesses from healthcare to manufacturing and non-profit organizations, software companies seem especially satisfied with it, with more than 150 of them counted among Adaptive Insights customer companies.

Pros

Users note that the system is easy to use, and quite adaptable as situations and needs change. They find that as they learn how to take full advantage of the system, the time spent compiling data is significantly reduced, freeing up the time needed to spend on actually analyzing the data and leveraging it into more informed decision-making. Several users have noted that the customer and technical support offered by Adaptive Insights is very good. Other users note that the system is robust enough to serve as a real-time scenario planner, forecaster, and budgeting, not just for financial metrics but overall performance and operation as well.

Cons

Several users noted that the reporting function could be much more robust. Building a new report can take up a lot of time, especially in terms of getting it to look the way you want it to look, and that the flexibility in formatting is quite limited. Other users noted that because some of the drop-down menus are extensive, it would be nice to have an easier way to navigate through them to find the selection you want, such as typing in an initial letter to jump to a certain spot in the menu. Others have noted that sometimes speed becomes an issue, but I can’t tell if that’s due to the Internet connection on the customer side or server issues with Adaptive Insights. As a web-bases service, there is variability in how well it works on different web browsers. Some users noted that it seems to work best when using Chrome or Firefox. Other users noted that if you business goes through several acquisitions and/or reorganizations, restructuring the system is very labor intensive, so keep that in mind.

In general, users of the Adaptive Insightsaccounting and finance software solution are very pleased with everything it can do, even though it is somewhat lacking in its reporting function in terms flexibility in formatting and building the reports. Going into the setup with clarity around your chart of accounts and the kind of reporting you need is essential.